The Diplomat's Son
by AnAznAsianAuthor
Summary: Kyle Kazuya, former youth athlete and current Sarcastic Supreme, has lived in America for his entire life. After moving to Japan, he enrolls at Hayama Academy, where he'll meet a group of girls who will change his life forever... Or something like that. They're nice and all, but their club's not exactly Six Flags or anything. And dating one? That's out of the question...


**A/N: Hey all! Hope you're having a good one. I've never really written much longer than a short story before, and even then, I don't have much writing experience. After playing Doki Doki Literature Club, I decided that would change. No story has ever had such a lasting emotional impact on me, and I felt the need to get my thoughts down on paper. I figured that the best way to do that would be to write a story about the characters and (my take on) the world in which they live. Monika won't be breaking the fourth wall here, but many of the other problems with the characters still persist. Hopefully this'll be something more than another "Saving So-And-So" story, but that's going to be the base. This chapter is more for exposition than anything else; we'll start meeting the other girls in the next.**

* * *

I slung my book bag over my shoulder, sighing at its hefty weight. I used to think schools in America were trying to break your back, but they were nothing compared to Hayama Academy. You'd think they'd invest in some tech for the students with all the cash they pulled in. Then again, I didn't think I would use it even if they did - as much as I loved using technology at home, I was more old-school in the classroom. Maybe it was something I had been taught my whole life, but I always found that I remembered things better when I wrote them down on paper. And here, I'd need every advantage I could get.

Hayama Academy was one of the top secondary schools in the world, but it wasn't as if you needed to be an off-the-charts super-genius to get in (as yours truly would gladly attest to any day). In fact, its student body was formed by people from all walks of Japanese life thanks to its random lottery system. Of course, there were ways to game the system, the most common of which was throwing thousands of dollars at the school until they accepted your child. That wouldn't ever have worked for me, but as luck would have it, my mother was an American diplomat, just important enough to rub the right shoulders and get my foot in the door.

Of course, the teachers here were all experts in their fields, but what really made Hayama Academy so successful was its experimental approach to the student experience. The area of the campus where classes were held was ringed by circles of fully-furnished, modern houses for the students to live in. Each student lived in their own house, with exceptions for those who chose to live together and, very rarely, those who lived with nearby parents. The Academy was very close to the city's downtown and itself ringed by a forest, allowing easy access to both natural environments and metropolitan creature comforts. The entire Academy was designed from the ground up to give students a college-like independence, even electing to emulate the Western four-year system to foster long-term relationships with the school and classmates.

And what was I going to do with that independence?

Why, I was going to drag myself and this boulder of a backpack to that damn campus every morning for the next year. Even if this bag would surely be the death of me over time, the walk itself was beautiful. Dense pines were strewn about the residential areas; until you reached the edges of the place, it almost felt an idyllic forest paradise.

"Heeeeyyyyy!"

Almost.

Glancing behind me, I noticed a girl running towards me from the distance, her red bow comically bouncing on her peach-colored hair like an antenna on a cartoonish alien. That girl is Sayori, my neighbor at the Academy and my best friend since we were children. Though I'd never admit it to myself, I could never really see myself getting along with her if we had just met today. We just kinda… worked out, I guess, because we've known each other for so long. Her father was a prominent Japanese businessman, not to mention one of the many shoulders my mom rubbed back in America. Her family lived in the States for most of her life, with her dad managing the American branch of some tech company. We grew up together, playing together almost every day until we were too old to call it "playing" instead of "hanging out", at which point we simply started hanging out instead. When I was in middle school, she and her family moved back to Japan, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, we were able to keep in touch. She's always been my closest friend, and when I enrolled in Hayama Academy, she and I made sure that we'd be neighbors.

Still, she was always a bit of a ditz, in the most endearing way possible. She had a tendency to shout whatever what was on her mind, a trend she was currently continuing.

"Kyyyllllle!" she whined. "I overslept! But I caught you this time!"

Every so often, when we were in elementary school, I would wake up a bit early to wait outside her house for her to get ready. As soon as she opened her front door, I sprinted towards school, laughter on my face.

"Maybe. But that's only because I wasn't running like I normally would," I jabbed back.

"Eeehhhhh, you say that like you were thinking about leaving me behind!" she exclaimed, all the while giving me her signature tic of touching her index fingers together.

I say nothing, instead giving her a boyish grin.

"That's mean, Kyle!"

"Still giving me those puppy dog eyes, eh? You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

Sayori thinks on this for a moment, the cogs in her mind reaching the conclusion that the reason I did this was to get this kind of reaction out of her, the same kind that I had fished for years ago. She opens her mouth in realization, but I quickly cut her off with a hug.

"Ahh, I missed you so much, Sayori," I admit into her blazer before grabbing her by the shoulders with a friendly grasp. "I'm sorry I couldn't see you yesterday after I moved in. Mom wanted to see me down at the embassy, so I had to take the train down to Tokyo."

Whatever offense Sayori might've held at my immature trick must have dissipated, as she showed me a shy smile. "It's really been a while, hasn't it, Kyle?"

"It has been. And we've got a lot to catch up on." I smirk back. Briefly embracing each other once again, we soon continue our walk. It's just like old times - we shoot jokes back and forth while also making the time to comment on our surroundings. After a brief pause, Sayori quickly turns to me, something clearly on her mind.

"What's up, Sayori?" I ask her.

"Wellllll…" She touches the tips of her fingers again. "You remember how I helped start a club last year?

"Yup." I nod my assent. How couldn't I remember? She texted me for hours, expressing her excitement over starting some kind of Literature Club late in the school year. I didn't have the heart to tell her at the time, but I thought that if there was one thing that high schoolers didn't want to do with their free time, it's discussing literature. Heck, Sayori wasn't exactly the bookish type herself. Even so, as I hear it, she and the club President managed to drag two more people onto the roster - just enough to be an official school organization.

"I really think you should think about joining a club too, Kyle!" Sayori said, beaming at me. "You don't want to be a NEET, do you? And if you're only going to be spending one year here, I want it to be the best year ever!"

Thinking on this for a moment, I reply, "Are you sure you don't just want me to join your club?"

Sayori looks off to the side, trying to hide her quickly-blushing face. "No… Of course not! I mean, it'd be nice, but I know you're, like, not interested in that kind of stuff and…"

I raise an eyebrow.

"Was it really that obvious?"

I tap my fingers together in front of my face, mimicking Sayori's nervous tick. She glances down at her own hands, seemingly noticing them for the first time before quickly dropping her hands to her sides.

"Ehehe… Well, about that… I kinda promised the Literature Club I'd be bringing a new member today…"

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep."

"B-but I even had one of the others make cupcakes!"

Cupcakes? I wasn't normally one to spend hours after school, preferring instead to dissolve my stresses in manga and video games, but maybe it would do me a bit of good to join a club. Especially if there was food involved. Cupcakes aside, though, I already knew which club I wanted to join, no matter how much like Sayori I was when it came to food.

"Sayori, I've already decided on which club I want to join for the year," I admitted, choose my words carefully. "Nothing you could say could change my mind." At this, Sayori stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide with bewilderment.

"Really?" she asked, "Which one?"

"Now, what fun would it be if I told you?"

"Boo… You meanie…" she whines dejectedly.

"You'll find out soon enough."

We continued to make our way down the street, talking and laughing like we had been doing for years, as if no time had passed at all. Another lull in our conversation, and an idea formed in my head to bring back an old tradition of ours.

"I spy a refreshing sip."

Sayori turns to me, wide-eyed, as if she thought I'd forgotten about the game we used to play while walking to and from school. After a second, she refocuses on the road ahead, resolve clearly on her face. She cartoonishly squints, her mouth puckered into an effortful pout. Not even ten seconds pass before she gives me her answer.

"That crushed can of soda by the sewer grate?" Damn. She still remembers the type of innocuous things I like to notice and ask her about.

"Not bad. Go for it."

If I didn't know this girl so well, I would swear that her face had contorted into some kind of arrogant sneer. "I spy a wish!"

A wish? I knew the point of this game was to make you think about what was going on around you, but this was abstract, especially for Sayori. Glancing around, I see the white picket fences separating the tidy street from the neatly-arranged houses and pine trees. Nearby, I notice the towering spire resting atop the Academy's main building. Off in the distance, the city's skyline, resting below a bed of clouds.

"Hurry up, or you might miss it!" she admonishes me.

Uh, what? It definitely wasn't fair to pick something that would just disappear after a while. I'm just about to complain to her when I see it. Instantly, I'm taken back almost ten years in my head.

* * *

Sayori and I are at a local amusement park with my mom and her dad. The sun had long set, and we were on our way out towards the car. I was a bit miffed at not getting a chili dog before we left, but Sayori had other problems on her mind. Tears are streaming down my peach-headed friend's face as she desperately holds onto a red balloon, clutching its string with a white-knuckled grip.

"C'mon Sayori, your dad already said you can't take it in the car," I remember whining to her. This attempt at reason is only met with more bawling. Our parents glance at each other worriedly before Sayori's dad's eyes light up in inspiration. He leans down and faces his daughter.

"Hey, 'Yori. Do you remember what you do when you see a shooting star?" he patiently asks.

The peachette sniffles before replying. "Y-you make a wish…"

"That's right. And it's the same thing with balloons. When you let one go, you get to make a wish. And when other kids see it, floating off towards the stars, they get to make one too!"

"R-really?"

My mom chimes in. "That's right, kiddo! You'll be making so many other kids happy, and you'll get to make a wish yourself too."

After staring at her precious red balloon for what a child must perceive as eternity, she reluctantly lets go, watching as it floats in the air. I look up at it too, captivated by the power of one little orb of rubber.

"Well, alright, Sayori!" her dad shouts. "What did you two wish for?"

Of course, she and I being the people we were, we responded the same thing.

* * *

"I wished for a chili dog," I whisper to myself with nostalgia.

"Yaaay! You remember!" she cheers.

"Of course I do…" That was a long time ago.

"Your turn! Your turn!"

As it turns out, I must have been reminiscing for far too long, because the spire of the school is no longer in the midground of the landscape before me. Its tip, in fact, is out of my line of sight, replaced by the entrance to the Academy itself. Dozens of students mill about across the front of the school, many walking through sets of metal-framed glass doors propped open at the mouth of this behemoth of modern architecture. A few glance at me, noticing me sticking out like a sore thumb in a primarily-Japanese school. Great, I think to myself, I'm already marked.

"I spy my own personal hell…" I muttered under my breath, as melodramatic as ever.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Sayori offered in a comforting tone. "You're pretty smart, you know."

"Thanks. But school is still school" I lament to a sad nod from my companion. "Try to find me at lunch, okay? We still have a lot of catching up to do!"

"Okayyy~! Have a good first day, Kylie!" She scampers off before I can get too ticked at her using that old nickname.

"Sayo-nara!" is all I can shout back, proud of myself for yet another pun in the bag. The happiness doesn't last for long, though, as I remember what's in front of me: day one at a new school in a new country. Granted, I'd also meet new people and have new experiences, but whether those were good or bad was yet to be seen.

With a long, drawn-out sigh of resignation, I enter the school.

* * *

 **That was a bit shorter (and clunkier) than I expected it to be; rest assured, the next chapter will be longer (and hopefully smoother). I also can't promise to have a regular update schedule, as with my uni classes having started up again, I'm not sure if I'll have time. Either way, I hope you enjoyed my first foray into writing fiction; reviews are MUCH appreciated!**


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